/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM: “Viva Cuba!” Vies for Oscar Nomination

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Sep 13 2005 (IPS) - A children’s movie exploring the themes of friendship, intolerance and emigration has been chosen as Cuba’s entry for an Oscar nomination in the best foreign language film category at next year’s Academy Awards.

Viva Cuba!, the second feature length film by Cuban director Juan Carlos Cremata, has been drawing long line-ups outside movie theatres throughout the island, leading many to call it the cultural event of the summer.

In an interview with IPS, Cremata said that “being able to talk to children about such serious issues as emigration” is its own reward.

Emigration is a problem that affects much of the world, but has gained particular significance in Cuba since the 1959 triumph of the revolution led by socialist President Fidel Castro, he noted.

The decision to leave the country is one that “should take into account the opinions of the children involved, and that is what this movie is aimed at,” said the director, who lived abroad himself between 1992 and 1998, but then returned to “make films about Cuba in Cuba.”

Although the two lead characters in Viva Cuba! are a young girl and boy, the movie is for audiences of all ages, said Cremata, since it essentially recounts “the story of everything that is happening in Cuba today.”

And while the film tells its story with a heavy dose of humour, “there are also things to make you cry,” he remarked.

The movie revolves around Malú and Jorgito – played by young Cuban actors Malú Tarrau and Jorge Miló – who make a pledge to be friends for life, despite the animosity between their respective families.

When Malú’s grandmother dies and her mother decides to move abroad, the young friends take desperate measures to keep from being separated. They run away together and travel to the opposite end of the island to search out Malú’s father, in hopes that he will stop her mother from taking her out of the country.

The movie’s ending, which some find disturbingly unresolved, was described as “a beautiful and tragic metaphor” by film critic Joel del Río.

With her parents arguing fiercely in the background, Malú and Jorgito sit together staring out at the sea, with their gaze locked “on the very point where the island ends and there is nowhere left to escape from intolerance and strife,” said del Río.

Ana Carla, 13, and Gabriela, 11, are cousins who saw the movie together but had different takes on the movie’s ending.

“I didn’t really understand the ending, I don’t know if she stays in Cuba or leaves,” confesses Ana, while Gabriela declares, “She hugs Jorgito tight so he will always be with her. She leaves, but they never forget each other.”

Cremata maintains that the movie is a defence of the little girl’s desire to stay in the country, although he doesn’t overtly stress the point. “I don’t criticise anyone who wants to leave Cuba, nor do I criticise those who choose to stay, and that’s why it’s called Viva Cuba!” he explained.

The director confirmed that the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) is planning to submit his movie for consideration as a nominee in the best foreign language film category at next year’s Academy Awards, presented by the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Cuba’s first ever entry for an Academy Award nomination was Papeles Secundarios (Supporting Roles) by director Orlando Rojas, in 1990. Since then, a number of Cuban films have been submitted for consideration as nominees, but none has ever managed to capture an Oscar, as the awards are more commonly known.

In 1994, Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate), co-directed by Juan Carlos Tabío and the late Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, became the only Cuban movie ever actually nominated for an Oscar since the U.S. academy established the foreign language film category 58 years ago.

“An Oscar means absolutely nothing, and it has never entered my mind. I believe much more strongly in the reward represented by the packed theatres and the children who fall in love with the movie,” said Cremata.

Viva Cuba!, a co-production of Quad Productions of France and TVC Productora of Cuba, won this year’s “Cannes Junior” grand prize, awarded by a jury composed entirely of children.

The film was not officially entered in the competition, but the jury members’ determination to award it the grand prize under any circumstances finally forced the festival’s directors to give in, recounted Cremata.

The director’s first feature-length film, Nada (Nothing), released in 2001, garnered numerous awards for best directorial debut, at film festivals in Havana, Miami and Huelva, Spain.

Before the year is up, Cremata’s latest work will also be screened at international film festivals in the Canadian cities of Montreal and Toronto, as well as competing in this year’s Havana International Film Festival.

Film critic Antonio Masón praised Viva Cuba! for featuring children in the leading roles, “something that has never been done with much success in Cuban film,” but he felt that the film suffered for its sudden shift into the “road movie” genre.

Nevertheless, the adventures of the young lead characters in “their trip across the country” was one of the things that young “critic” Ana Carla enjoyed most about the movie, along with its portrayals of “friendship and the lack of understanding on the part of adults.”

For Cremata, Viva Cuba! is a plea “for comprehension and understanding between human beings, and for tolerance of other opinions, or basically, of differences.”